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NEW YORK — Verizon FiOS will
become the third affiliate forESPN’s college football highlights
and scoring channel and
will add ESPN 3D to its roster
next year as part of a new carriage
pact.

Verizon and the Disney and
ESPN Media Networks Group
signed a long-term contract enabling
the telco to continue to
provide its subscribers with extant
ESPN products and service,
including broadband service
ESPN3.com, while adding access
to such new services as ESPN
Goal Line and ESPN 3D, plus
upcoming preschool network
Disney Junior, mobile programming
and live online authenticated
streaming of several ESPN
networks.

Terms of the adjunct agreement,
which encompass many
of the advanced-media features
included in last month’s Disney/
ESPN renewal pact with Time
Warner Cable, were not disclosed.

First launched last month on
Time Warner Cable and Bright
House Networks systems, the
ad hoc collegiate highlights
channel ESPN Goal Line will be
available to FiOS TV Extreme
HD and FiOS TV Ultimate HD
package customers at no extra
charge, as of Oct 9.

ESPN 3D, which currently
counts Comcast, AT&T U-verse
and DirecTV, is scheduled to
launch for Verizon FiOS TV subscribers
in 2011. Time Warner
Cable and Bright House have
also committed to the new service,
and could launch it before
year’s end, according to an ESPN
official.

Current TV Lets Viewers
Control ‘Bar Karma’

NEW YORK — Current TV has
teamed with video game designer
Will Wright (The Sims, Sim-
City) for a multi-episode series
that allows audiences to control
the show’s storyline, the network
announced Thursday.

The tentatively titled Bar
Karma is set to premiere in the
first quarter of 2011.

Bar Karma is co-created and
executive produced by former
MTV Networks executive Albie
Hecht. His Worldwide Biggies
studio is the production company.
David Cohn, former general
manager of MTV2, will be
executive in charge for Current,
whose CEO, Mark Rosenthal, is a
former MTVN president.

Bright House Launches
Speed2 on BroadbandCHARLOTTE, N.C. — Speed2, the
racing-content broadband network
from Fox Networks, has
launched on Bright House Networks
systems.

The service is available at no
extra charge to BHN subscribers
who buy the Sports Pack tier
and have Internet access. Those
are the same conditions under
which Time Warner Cable first
launched the service. Following
a July launch in Charlotte, N.C.,
TWC now makes Speed2 available
to sports-tier customers
nationwide.

Speed2 now is available to
more than 1 million TWC subscribers,
and BHN is expected
to add about 150,000 potential
users.

Speed officials said more affiliates
could be on board later
this year.

While TWC and BHN (which
buys programming using TWC’s
contracts) opted to offer the
service to sports-tier customers,
terms could vary with other
affiliates, Fox Networks officials
have said.

Syfy Renews ‘Warehouse
13,’ ‘Haven’

NEW YORK — Syfy will return
freshman scripted drama seriesHaven for a sophomore run in
Summer 2011 and said its top
scripted series, Warehouse 13, will
be back for a third go-round.

Haven, based on Stephen
King’s short story “The Colorado
Kid” and starring Emily
Rose as an FBI agent who takes
up residence in the mysterious
town of Haven, Maine, will go
back into production for 13 episodes
next spring.

The series, produced by Entertainment
One, averaged 2.6
million total viewers in its inaugural
season, including over 1.2
million adults 25-54 and 989,000
adults 18-49, the NBC Universalowned
network said.

FX Wants New Round
Of ‘Sons of Anarchy’

LOS ANGELES — FX has ordered
a 13-episode, fourth season ofSons of Anarchy.

Since the departure of The
Shield and Nip/Tuck and with
the final season of Rescue Mecoming in 2011, Sons has increasingly
come to define FX’s drama
brand.

“Sons of Anarchy is the most
popular show FX has ever had,
and the No. 1 series in basic
cable for our key demographic.
It is also one of the best, most
original series on television,”
John Landgraf, president and
general manager, FX Networks,
said. “FX is grateful to Kurt
Sutter and his team of writers,
actors, directors and crew
for working so hard to make a
show that achieves both those
levels of success. We congratulate
them and look forward to
season four.”

In its third season, Sons is
averaging 4.9 million total viewers
with 3.4 million among
the advertiser-coveted 18-49
demographic, making it among
cable’s top-rated scripted shows
in the demo.